Lydia Ko had no choice but to quickly move on from last Sunday’s disastrous back nine at the Marathon LPGA Classic. After stepping to the 13th tee at Highland Meadows Golf Club with a five-stroke lead, Ko collapsed down the stretch, carding two bogeys and a double bogey over the closing holes and finishing second to Danielle Kang.
“Almost having a tournament right after makes you focus on what's right there in front of you and I think maybe less think about what happened at Marathon,” said Ko, who has 15 career victories. “Obviously I would have loved to have had one more higher finish in the end. There's a lot about what happened to me on the last hole. But you have to talk about what amazing golf Danielle played. I just think it really wasn't meant to be.”
Fast forward one week and Ko is again right in the thick of competition. Her 67 on Saturday was the day’s best round by two strokes, and she enters the final round just two strokes behind leaders Stacy Lewis and Azahara Munoz.
“It's nice, no matter where you play, to have a bogey-free round like that. I think when I was out of position, I was able to make up-and-down,” said Ko. “Sometimes you have to get lucky having a good lie in the bunker or just off the greens, as well, but I feel like overall, I stayed believing in my game and being aggressive when I needed to and then being a little bit safer when it was a tough pin position, as well. I think you kind of have to manage that really well, and that will give me a good lesson for next week at the British Open.”
Links golf has been a mixed bag of results for Ko. She tied for third at the 2015 AIG Women’s Open at Trump Turnberry’s Ailsa Course, but has no other top-10 finishes in her 10 combined AIG Women’s Open and ASI Ladies Scottish Open appearances.
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